“He encouraged me to bowl carron ball” - Shoaib Bashir reveals the player behind Mohammed Siraj’s wicket at Lord’s

England spinner Shoaib Bashir has opened up on dismissing Mohammed Siraj to take England to a 2-1 lead in the Lord’s Test. He also credited his former teammate Moeen Ali, who advised him to bowl the carrom ball.

The young spinner had to unfortunately leave the remainder of the five-match Test series after suffering a finger fracture during the Lord’s Test. Interestingly, he had already dismissed Siraj earlier with the carrom ball in the second Test in Birmingham.

While Ravindra Jadeja was batting well on the other end, scoring an unbeaten 61-run knock in the low-scoring chase, English skipper Ben Stokes took Bashir’s help to clean up the final wicket, and the youngster didn’t disappoint his captain.

"I met Moeen Ali for the first time at Edgbaston and we spoke a lot. Mo encouraged me to bowl the carrom ball. He's someone I've always looked up to and for him to say, 'Back yourself to do it,' meant a lot,” Bashir told The Sunday Times. 

“I just wanted to show that I’ve got that strength in me. I bowled it a few times and it came out nicely. I got Siraj out with it [stumped in the first innings], with a really slow ball — it was only about 43 to 44mph,” he added.

"Since Edgbaston, I’ve been in touch with Mo a fair few times. He's a legend and someone I look up to massively, especially being an off spinner in England, which is not an easy job," he stated.

Moving into the details of the Lord’s game, India was chasing 193 and was reeling at 112/8 with Jadeja and Jasprit Bumrah occupying the crease. Though Bumrah had to leave the crease a few overs later, Siraj registered 29 deliveries before Bashir took up the final wicket with India falling short.

“We were creating chances, but just couldn’t get that wicket. I really wanted to get out there. Stokesy knew and gave me the go-ahead when he was on the field and I was on the bench. My left hand felt pretty good when I was bowling. I’m just glad I could make a difference.”

“We got Joe Root to come into a silly point to put pressure on Siraj, and I just tried to put as many revs on that ball as I could. Luckily it popped from a length and when it hit his bat (and down into the ground), everyone was just looking, ‘Where is it?’”

"From my angle I couldn’t really see [the bail coming off]. My reaction was different from other peoples’ reactions. I was just relieved. That feeling will stay with me forever — at the home of cricket in front of a packed crowd. It doesn’t get better."

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